September 26, 2005

Sprints Routed by Midshipmen

By | September 26, 2005

The Cornell sprint football team is still a work in progress. After a 13-6 loss to Penn a week ago, the Red played host to Navy at Schoellkopf Field on Friday night and fell to the Midshipmen, 41-0, dropping the squad to 0-2.

Navy receiving stars Kurt Laughary and Theo Williams combined for four touchdowns and torched the Red secondary for 199 yards. Red senior quarterback Alec Macaulay had a tough evening as well, throwing two interceptions at the end of the first half, which led to Navy touchdowns and put the game out of reach at 35-0 by halftime.

“Basically we were out-coached and out-played in that first half,” said Cornell head coach Terry Cullen. “They knew what we were doing and took advantage of our mistakes. Those two [interceptions] were from bad routes by our receivers, and it cost us.”

The first two contests of the regular season for the Red, however, do not count in the league standings. Navy, the two-time defending league champion’s, have not lost in the last two years.

According to Macaulay, the game was a good learning experience for the team.

“I learned from the game that we still have a lot of work to do,” he said. “I would attribute the interceptions solely to myself; they were sitting in tough defenses to throw against, dropping eight guys into pass coverage. And into that kind of defense you really need to make a perfect throw and those two were anything but perfect.”

The Red offensive line, according to Cullen, is still learning to play together and provide the proper protection for Macaulay and running room for junior Mike Fullowan.

The only chance Cornell had to make the game close, after falling behind 14-0, came in the second quarter when senior defensive lineman Stevie Baron recovered a Navy fumble at their 38-yard line. Following the turnover, the Red tried a halfback pass by Fullowan which fell incomplete and forced the Red to punt. The Midshipmen responded emphatically with a halfback option of their own, resulting in a 68-yard touchdown reception to Laughary, putting the game out of reach at 21-0.

“I guess the positive to take away from a game like this was our response in the second half,” Cullen said. “We adjusted well and our defense was able to stabilize the game for the most part. We were never able to get any consistency on the offense though to make hay.”

The Red’s first league game comes on Saturday afternoon, at home, against VMI. According to the Cullen, the fact that the team came out in the second half and played almost even football against the Navy starters, who did not make any substitutions until late in the fourth quarter, was a good sign for this growing team and should make an impact in weeks to come – Macaulay agreed.

“We always kept our heads held high during the game, especially in the second half,” Macaulay said. “Being down 35 points at halftime and then coming back and playing strong and even football the rest of the way shows the character on this team.”

Related

BySeptember 27, 2005

Too much of anything is usually a bad thing. At Cornell, I find this to be true in that there is too much happening on campus at any given time. It seems as though, at any given moment, there are 50 different guest speakers on campus. I sit here in my junior year having been to barely any extracurricular events; however, I was lucky enough to hear about a question and answer session with jazz legend Branford Marsalis, which I attended last Friday. The session was more intimate than I would have expected. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more people like me who simply were too overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of quarter cards and fliers on Ho Plaza to differentiate between any of the nine million goings on at Cornell last week. In total, there were no more than twenty people in Barnes Hall Auditorium, which provided for a relaxed atmosphere in which Marsalis could be both candid and comical. The small audience, along with the help of Professor Steven Pond, allowed for anyone in attendance to ask questions without a long wait. The questions varied widely, ranging from current events to the state of the popular music scene and the best way for a musician to practice. I was pleased at the ease with which Marsalis answered any question thrown at him. It became apparent that he was not only familiar with an abundance of material, but also comfortable speaking about nearly anything, which is rare. His eloquence was demonstrative of his immense musical knowledge and formal education. The son of a professor, Marsalis is truly a learned man, especially when it comes to discussing music. He was quick to call Kanye West stupid and say that modern jazz musicians were nerdy. He also boasted of how he found it a waste of time to ever rehearse with his band. Yet throughout the duration of the session he was quick to refer to the fact that he always had room for improvement in his own playing, especially with regard to playing classical music, which he has opted to do several times in the past decade. My own personal highlights were hearing Marsalis refer to some of my favorite musical acts. He said that the Grateful Dead, with whom he played with several times in the early 1990s, were “cool.” He called them scholars of the music they played and loved, commenting that they were able to conjure up any number of songs onstage, not because they had rehearsed them, but rather because they were tremendous fans of music. Marsalis also made reference more than once to the late Jeff Buckley. He said that Buckley’s album Grace was “as good as anything I’ve heard,” and that good music, like Buckley’s, needs no categorization. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it was also fascinating to hear Marsalis, a Louisiana native and veteran of the New Orleans music scene, speak about the future of New Orleans music. He said he has no doubt that the music will soon revitalize in the Crescent City. He also noted that if there were truly an effort to clean up the “Disneyland for Drunks” that New Orleans has become, in a similar fashion to how New York’s 42nd Street, the city would lose much of its tourism. “People would rather go to a superior city like New York – people come to New Orleans to see jazz.” It would be most difficult for me to in any way sum up the entire hour-and-a-half in which Marsalis spoke. What I can do is affirm the fact that we do have a lot of interesting things happening on campus. I wish now that I had taken the time in the past to seek out more guest lectures and information sessions. I will in the future, and I would urge anyone to do the same. I finished up the experience by attending Marsalis’s concert at the State Theater. The show was more valuable to me having seen him speak of his music and interaction with his band. The incredible musicianship displayed at the concert firmed up for me what I had begun to realize at the question and answer session: Branford Marsalis is truly a class act. Archived article by Scott EismanSun Staff Writer

BySeptember 27, 2005

It was an up and down weekend for Cornell field hockey (5-2, 3-0 Ivy) as the team split its matches. On Friday, the Red persevered in a come-from-behind 3-2 overtime victory against Yale before running out of gas in a 2-0 loss to Vermont on Sunday. Against Yale (2-5, 0-2 Ivy), it was a seesaw affair following a scoreless first period, as the two teams traded goals throughout the second half. Cornell got on the board first, 10 minutes into the period, as freshman Abbi Horn connected on a penalty corner. Over the next 20 minutes, Yale scored two goals to put the Eli’s up by one as the clock ran down. With Yale up by one, head coach Donna Hornibrook called a time out to settle the young team, hoping to force overtime. In the event of an overtime period, the format changes to seven on seven, which would enable the Red to utilize its speed and quickness and create a mismatch against the Elis on a more open field. With six minutes left in regulation, freshman Alyssa DePaola was able to convert on a penalty corner to tie up the game. The score would stay at two for the remainder of the half and into the sudden death overtime period. With 7:11 left in overtime, freshman Belen Martinez took a pass from Horn and found the back of the net, clinching the game for the Red. “We did a good job sticking with our game plan against Yale. They played a tight zone defense, which we had to adapt to,” Hornibrook said. “We were able to keep our composure and equalize the score and then take advantage of our quickness in the overtime period.” Against the Catamounts on Sunday, the typically potent Red offense was stymied, as the team was shut out for the first time this season. It was an off day for the Red, which failed to display the tenacity and proper execution that had been critical to its success so far this season. “We didn’t show up defensively. We were out of position and didn’t pay attention to little details,” Hornibrook said. “Our forwards have done a good job with pressure, but didn’t do that on Sunday, which put more pressure on the midfield and defense. [Vermont does] deserve credit though, they played very well.” Vermont scored a goal in each half and barraged Cornell with shots, holding a 17-8 edge on the day. While against Yale the Red was able to use its speed and quickness to pull out the victory, that aspect of the Red’s game was hampered against Vermont. Because the game was played on a wet field surface, the Red had difficulty making cuts and changing directions, thereby limiting the effectiveness of its attacks and transition game. “It was a big win for us against Yale to go into their place, come back and win it in overtime,” Hornibrook said. “We were disappointed that we didn’t get both games this weekend, but we have had six pretty good performances in a row. We had an off day on Sunday.” The Red returns to action this weekend with games at Princeton on Friday and at West Chester on Sunday. Archived article by Jon Hausner Sun Staff Writer